Marquette loses the most successful coach in volleyball program history as he takes over a Gators program from a legend of the sport.
When I saw that Mary Wise had announced her retirement after 34 seasons as Florida volleyball head coach, I thought to myself “Well, they’d be stupid to not at least call Ryan Theis to see if he’s interested.” Sure, his contract ran through the 2028 season, but that’s not exactly a huge impediment if a power program wants to make a strong decision.
11 days later, my gut instinct was right. Marquette head volleyball coach Ryan Theis has been hired by the University of Florida to be the third head coach since the Gators restarted their program in 1984. He takes over from Mary Wise, who went 987-150 in 34 seasons, including 23-8 in 2024, which ended in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. It was Wise’s 34th straight NCAA tournament appearance as well as her 34th straight appearance with at least one victory.
No, you are not reading those numbers wrong.
Florida went 59-6 in the two seasons that Theis spent in Gainesville as an assistant to Wise, including identical 19-1 records in SEC play and back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in 2006 and 2007. It’s also worth noting that Theis’ wife, Jenn, played for Wise back in the 1990s after attending high school in Florida just outside of Jacksonville, so there’s a certain amount of familial attachment to the Florida job for the Theis family.
Theis leaves Marquette with a record of 258-87 as Golden Eagles head coach. His winning percentage of .748 is the best in program history, and he is second all-time in wins, trailing only Tat Shiely, who coached the program for 20-plus seasons. Theis hold the program record for NCAA tournament victories, posting a record of 9-10 in 10 tournaments in 11 seasons. Theis’ only missed NCAA tourney was the timeshifted 2020 campaign, and if we’re being honest, that’s only a miss because they shrank the size of the field down from the traditional 64 teams. Theis won three Big East regular season championships, tripling the total number of conference titles the program had won before he was hired. He coached four of the five conference Player of the Year winners in program history, as well as 10 of the 24 All-American seasons in program history. That includes Allie Barber in 2018, the only Second Team All-American in program history.
Yes, losing the winningest and most successful coach in program history two months after the season ends is not a great way to go about things. But that’s what happens when a coaching legend retires two months after the season ends and your coach has both employment and family ties to the vacant job.
And so, somewhat unexpectedly, brand new athletic director Mike Broeker is asked to make his first coaching hire, somewhat outside the normal coaching search cycle for the sport in question. He’s asked to make that hire in order to keep the program that I have repeatedly called The Best Team On Campus at the level of success that it has been running at since Bond Shymansky took Marquette volleyball to its first NCAA tournament in 2011. It’s a tough ask, to be certain, and no matter how it goes, it’s going to be a decision that colors the entire rest of Broeker’s tenure as athletic director.
No matter who Broeker hires for the job, the sixth coach in Marquette history will find themselves in an interesting spot. Yes, the Golden Eagles are coming off their second Sweet 16 and the third in seven seasons, not to mention the consecutive Big East titles in 2021, 2022, and 2023. However, Marquette was going to return just one starter from the 2024 roster in middle blocker Hattie Bray. No matter what does or does not happen with the players on the roster, both returning and newcomers, between now and August, Marquette volleyball was going to look a whole heck of a lot different in 2025 than it did in 2024.
Now that change in the faces on the court has a change on the sideline to go with it, and who knows how many changes that brings to the roster as well.
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